Contact devices of this kind are used, for example, in control units or sensors in order to connect a circuit part to a connector part. Conventional pressure sensors use as a circuit part, for example, a pressure measurement chip that is disposed in a housing and has a measurement bridge disposed on a pressure-sensitive diaphragm, which bridge is electrically connected to conductive traces of the pressure measurement chip. The conductive traces are conductively connected to three contact pads disposed on the circuit part in an edge region, which fields are allocated to, for example, three connection types—ground (GND), supply voltage (VDD), and signal voltage (VOUT)—and constitute a first contact assemblage. The connector part of the pressure sensor has contact elements that are equipped with three contact pads that are disposed in a row and face toward the circuit part, and are likewise allocated to the ground, supply voltage, and signal voltage connection types; these contact pads constitute a second contact assemblage. If the sequence in which the three contact pads of the first contact assemblage are disposed is, for example, VDD-GND-VOUT, the three contact pads of the first contact assemblage can then be connected in crossover-free fashion to the three contact pads of the second contact assemblage only if the disposition of the second contact pads is likewise VDD-GND-VOUT, i.e., if the sequence of the contact pads allocated to the different connection types is the same in both contact assemblages.
In automotive engineering in particular, however, pressure sensors must often be adapted to the connector assignments predetermined by the manufacturer. If the manufacturer defines the sequence of connection types differently by way of the connector assignment (e.g. VOUT-VDD-GND), then either a laborious reconfiguration of the connector part is necessary in order to enable a crossover-free bonding wire connection between the two contact assemblages, or else the sequence of contact pads of the first contact assemblage on the circuit part that are allocated to the connection types must be modified, which represents an even more considerable additional effort. Although a limited degree of relief can be had by keeping two types of circuit part in stock, the circuit layout of the second type and therefore also the sequence of the contact pads in the first contact assemblage being transposed relative to the first type (mirror-image chip method), even then not all combinations can be covered.